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I can’t believe that I’ve finally begun my study abroad placement, for which I’ll be at Shanghai Theatre Academy for one academic year. It doesn’t feel that long ago that I was trying to get myself organized. My university was extremely supportive, and I’m sure the staff in the humanities study abroad office were sick of me by the end of the year, but the list of things to do seemed exhaustive, especially when it came to dealing with student finance. I have to admit that if I didn’t have a dad who was so organized, I would’ve inevitably left my preparations to the last minute. The following advice is assuming that you’ve already undertaken the necessary research into the culture of the locations that you want to go to and have narrowed down your options (if you haven’t done this, then Pinterest and ThirdYearAbroad.com are your new best friends). Although this is concerning my preparations for China, many of them can be applicable to most destinations..

Home for the next 11 months

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT 3-6 MONTHS PRE-DEPARTURE

FINANCIAL ASPECTS
Make sure you budget before you go and consider all of the different costs that you’ll incur over the course of the year. In terms of support, you should still receive your usual maintenance loans/grants/bursaries. If you’re going to Europe, Erasmus practically pays you to study abroad, although due to Brexit this probably won’t be on offer for much longer! Although it’s not highly publicized, Student Finance England does offer travel grants. They’re a bit of a mystery and have various stipulations, but if you meet the criteria, then you could be eligible to have the following reimbursed: vaccines, visas, the medical aspect of your insurance (usually 40%), up to three return flights from your university and hometown, and the transport between your campus and university.

They’ve also brought out the mysterious concept of qualifying quarters which, depending on which member of their staff you speak to, shape-shifts. To my understanding, it basically states that you have to be in attendance for at least half of the qualifying quarter that you are applying for remuneration for. You would think they would separate the year into four equal quarters, but the ‘quarters’ seem somewhat random, so make sure you double-check before you book flights etc on certain dates or you could risk not being reimbursed. SFE should automatically assess your eligibility for a travel grant and then send you a course abroad form to complete, but don’t expect them to do that and ask them if you think it’s taking too long. You need to get this course abroad form signed by your university so don’t leave to go home at the end of term without doing this! As soon as you have informed them of your year abroad and your loans have been approved, make sure you are regularly chasing them up about the status of your grant. Or else like me, you could end up booking your flights only for them to say that they haven’t actually assessed you yet so they’re unsure of your eligibility. Reimbursements usually take a couple of weeks to process, and their status can be checked on your student portal.

ACCOMODATION
Luckily enough, I was able to stay in the student dormitory which is a few minutes away from my classes. However, I know other students at various universities in China (and elsewhere) that automatically assumed the university would take care of the accommodation only to realize last minute that it was actually up to them. Some try to find a place before they arrive, but more commonly students stay in hostels when they arrive while they look for somewhere to live. The most important thing is to know what your options are, and to have a plan for when you arrive.

VISAS
You’ll have to complete the application form, along with other documents, and drop these with off along with your passport. Make sure the expiry date of your passport is at least six months after your departure date from your study abroad placement. They usually keep your documents for around one week before returning them. Once you arrive in China you’ll then need to take this TEMPORARY visa to the embassy within 30 days to retrieve an official resident permit.
A Link to the Chinese Embassy website can be found here.
(Other useful links for different countries: USA, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand)

MEDICAL ASPECTS
Get your travel insurance sorted in good time. Luckily for me, my university offers an insurance package which averages about 67p per day for China. If you’re also at Exeter, then the link for that can be found here. Remember that most travel insurance policies only provide access to emergency medical care and do not include regular check ups or prescription access. You can pay around £90 once you arrive in China for a local insurance policy that allows you to access these facilities, but it’s better to sort any medication out before you go to be on the safe side. The NHS provides up to a three month supply of prescriptions and then you can access the rest privately at various pharmacies (I found ASDA to be the cheapest).